#consumer4sight No. 5: We become “free range” shoppers

We’ll be doing more “free range” shopping – Anywhere/anytime network access leads to what I like to call “free-range shopping”. You don’t have to be at a shopping place to buy things, you can do that wherever you are, and increasingly, you want to. One key reason: encountering products out in the world shows them at their truest and best, and that’s probably when you recognize how they might fit your needs. My post “A 2021 Shopper’s Path to Purchase” explores how this might work. Because products have a digital life too, it will be possible to take a mobile phone picture and automatically identify the product for purchase. Apps like “Flow Powered by Amazon”—announced in November 2011—will let consumers snap a picture and buy, through a combination of image recognition and barcode or QR code or SnapTag reading with smartphone cameras. Consumers will embrace this ability, freeing them to find and choose products whenever and wherever they want. And they will be impatient with sellers who don’t make it that easy. The bottom line for business. Since the consumer lives in and wants to shop in the cloud, you will have to make more mobile purchases possible. Brick and mortar stores can continue to offer thorough, immersive experiences that are hard to replace, but convenience and ubiquitous access will often trump the qualities of store shopping. Finding ways to tie the physical with the virtual will pay off, but often brick and mortar stores will be the show-rooms for people who want to touch a product before they buy it. But does having them in the store guarantee that store gets the sale? Image: Screen capture from:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fGaVFRzTTP4See prior #consumer4sight posts here: https://foresightculture.com/category/consumer4sight/